When Accidents Happen
by TwiCanonFodder
Summary: Five years after Jasper joins the Cullens, he has his first 'slip-up'. As his family try and help him to move past it, they reflect on their own experiences when it comes to killing humans.


**Twilight Canon Fodder Challenge**

**Title: When Accidents Happen**

**Contest Category (Rookie/Vet): Vet**

**Characters/Pairing: Jasper/ Alice I guess. But really the entire Cullen family.**

**Rating: T**

**Canon Type (Book/Movie): Book**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of its characters. They all belong to Stephenie Meyer.**

**Summary: Five years after Jasper joins the Cullens, he has his first 'slip-up'. As his family try and help him to move past it, they reflect on their own experiences when it comes to killing humans.**

**To see other entries in the Canon Fodder Challenge, please visit the C2 page:**

**http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/community/Canon_Fodder_Challenge/79719/**

**

* * *

**

When Accidents Happen

"_The occasional accident … or lapse in control is a regrettable part of who we are." __**Carlisle, Midnight Sun**_**.**

1955

One second. That's all it took to ruin everything. One second where the scent was too strong. That was all Jasper needed to kill the woman, and when she died, so did everything Alice had done for him.

And now he could never return home. He was a murderer, a killer. He didn't deserve to be loved, especially not by someone as special as Alice.

Nor did he deserve a family like the Cullens. He could just envision what it would be like if he went back to the place that, just an hour ago, he had called home. How the Cullen's – he couldn't think of them as his family anymore – would react when they saw his red irises.

He saw them all in his mind as he ran through the forests. Running away from them.

Carlisle, patient to a fault, would tell him that it was just a mistake and it wasn't his fault. The calm acceptance of Jasper's betrayal of everything Carlisle stood for would be unnerving to him. Jasper would prefer to be shouted at, to feel anger and disgust, rather than the concern and worry he knew his former adoptive father would feel.

He had been screamed at and tortured by his former leader, but the concerned look that he knew would come over Carlisle's face was much more punishing than any torture Maria had ever performed on him. He didn't deserve anyone's concern.

Esme would try to comfort him and go into overboard mother hen mode. Jasper had never met anyone with as much love within them as his former adoptive mother. Why she wasted even a part of it on him was a mystery to him.

Edward and Emmett would understand. Though his 'record' was nowhere as bad as Jasper, Edward was the one who, after him, had tasted the most human blood. He would think he could sympathise with him, but it wasn't the same. Four measly years didn't compare to the near century in which Jasper had lived off human blood.

As for Emmett, he would consider it for a moment and then brush it aside, say it was a part of the past and they should move on. But Jasper couldn't move on as quickly as his happy-go-lucky former brother.

Rosalie wouldn't care, unless it meant they had to move on again. Then she would have a tantrum about it and blame Jasper. He knew he fully deserved all the blame she would have thrown at him.

But the worst image of all was Alice's reaction. Seeing her concerned face would be a hundred times worse than Carlisle's. She would tell him that, no matter what, she loved him, and that they would get past this together. But she shouldn't love him. He didn't deserve her love. He had never deserved her.

But it didn't matter. He was not returning home. He simply couldn't face those he used to call his family.

"You didn't seriously think I'd let you run off without a fight?" a familiar bell-like voice chimed. And out of nowhere Alice dropped from a tree, and with a little twirl, landed in front of him.

Jasper stared at her in amazement. A thousand different replies echoed in his mind. He wanted the words that could make everything go away, make things how they had been. But that was not something that could be accomplished by just a few words.

"I'm sorry." Those two words did not even begin to cover everything, but they would have to do.

"So you should be, trying to run away from me like that," she said with mock seriousness.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't be the man you deserve."

"Jasper Whitlock!" she gasped, shocked. "How can you say that? You are brave and loyal-"

"And a killer," Jasper cut in angrily. She shook his head at him.

"But you're trying. You have decades of death and destruction against you, and you're still trying to be a better man. You have strength unlike anyone I've ever known because you're able to do that. And that's why I love you." As she said the last part she claimed his hand in hers.

"You still deserve better," he mumbled. She let go off his hand and took a step back. She stood glaring at him, with her hands on her hips. If it weren't for the seriousness of the situation, Jasper would have laughed at the image.

"Don't you ever say that again," she ordered fiercely.

"It's true," Jasper replied self-despairingly. "You deserve someone less broken."

"I'm nowhere near perfect either, Jasper."

_Alice was proud of herself. She had gold eyes now, like the family in her visions. She had never known the reason behind the difference in their eyes and her red ones, until recently. She'd had a vision of them hunting animals for their blood and had copied them. Now her eyes matched those of the family she already loved so much_

_There was Carlisle and Esme, who were so loving and caring. The perfect set of parents._

_And then there was Edward, who in her more recent visions had red eyes like hers used to be. She did not know why he had left his parents, but she was confident he would return soon. And his eyes would return to gold once more, just like Carlisle and Esme's, and mine, she reminded herself happily. They would be a family once again._

_The family she was certain she would join one day. But first she had to find the man named Jasper, who needed her as much as she needed him._

_She was practically skipping down the street, it was lucky it was deserted or she would be attracting a lot of unwanted attention. With her now gold eyes, she could blend in much better with humans._

_It had been over ten years since she had first woken up alone in a forest; she was now able to walk amongst humans without wanting to kill them instantly. Though her throat still burned around them, it was possible to ignore it in a way she couldn't have done a decade ago._

_It was just a change in the wind, but it brought Alice's world crashing down around her. A boy had cut his hand when trying to climb the fence in a nearby alley. The scent of fresh blood was too much for Alice. Her mouth was at his hand and she was drinking from it greedily. The sweet nectar that was so much more satisfying than the bitter twang of animal blood._

_Alice didn't stop to consider what she was doing until it was over._

_What had she done? She was weak and uncontrollable. She didn't deserve the family she coveted so much. Jasper would probably despise the idea of spending his life with someone as weak as her. How was she supposed to save him when she couldn't even save herself?_

"You honestly thought I wouldn't want you?" Jasper asked Alice unbelievingly. He lent down and kissed her tenderly. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer, kissing him more vigorously.

"Little eager, aren't we?" he teased.

"I thought you were leaving," she replied softly. If a cold dead heart could break, Jasper was certain his would have done so when he heard the pain in her voice. He had hurt her, he realised – a crushing realisation that threatened to make his legs crumple to the floor. Somehow he managed to keep it together.

"I'll never leave you, as long as you want me," he whispered in her ear.

"I'll always want you," she whispered back and kissed him again. "Now let's go home." She separated herself from his arms and started running back in the direction of her the Cullen house. She listened carefully for the sound of her mate's footsteps following her, and smiled when she heard them. Jasper had only hesitated for a second before following Alice; he knew he would follow her anywhere.

It had been a week since Jasper's 'slip-up', as his family called them. His return home and announcement of what had happened had been exactly as he had predicted it. Concerned Carlisle and Esme, understanding Emmett and Edward, and a peeved Rosalie. Only Alice's reaction was different to the one he had predicted. She had stood by his side, proud to be his, even in this, his darkest hour.

He was hiding from his family now. After a week of faking normalcy around his family, of forcing himself to laugh at Emmett's tasteless jokes and noticing as his parents made themselves look him in the eye, he simply couldn't take any more. Especially without Alice here

Alice had gone shopping with Esme, she had been hesitant to leave him, but he had told her to go. He didn't want her to miss out on what she loved doing because of him.

But he hadn't been able to face being around the rest of his family, so he was now hiding in the dusty old attic where no one ever went.

He looked around curiously. There was furniture Esme had banished up here on grounds of sheer ugliness and miscellaneous boxes piled high, though what was in them he didn't know.

"Oh, grouchy, you done hiding from us all yet?" he heard his brother shout up. He was not in the mood for Emmett's carefree attitude.

Next thing he knew, Emmett's giant form was sat next to him.

"Dude, we get it, you killed someone. So did I once. You don't see my hiding in the attic like a bat. You do realise we don't actually turn in to them, right?"

Jasper couldn't even force a smile at Emmett's lame joke.

"You're not the first one to ever slip-up, Jasper, so beating yourself up about it. I know when I did …"

It was a normal day, and Emmett was on yet another errand for Rosalie. He loved her and all, but she sure could be demanding at times. He hadn't even seen the woman, and he probably never would have, if a sudden night breeze hadn't sent her scent wafting towards him. It took him totally by surprise. She was much more tempting than any human he had smelled before.

_Emmett killed her without thinking about it. It was only after she was dead that he even got a look at her. She looked like just your average middle-age woman. Why had she been so tempting to him?_

_And what was he going to tell Rosalie? And the Cullens? They'd kick him out for sure. Carlisle only had one rule as far as Emmett could tell – don't kill humans. He couldn't be a Cullen now. And what would Rosalie think? Would she think he'd let her down? Rosalie had only ever killed the scum who attacked her, and they'd deserved it. He had killed an innocent middle-aged woman._

_With a sigh, Emmett picked up the body, knowing he had to dispose off it. And then he would return home, because he had nowhere else to go. Not much bothered Emmett, but the idea that the Cullens would kick him out did. He had grown to love them as much as he had ever loved the McCartys. _

_And if this cost him Rosalie …_

_It was with a heavy heart that Emmett headed back toward the Cullen family home._

"But they didn't kick me out, so it's all good. I can't change the fact that I killed that woman, but I'm not going to mope about it, it wouldn't do any good. And neither should you, so get up!"

"Leave me alone, Emmett," Jasper snapped.

"Fine, guess I'll have to wrestle Edward then, even though he's a big cheat!" And with that Emmett disappeared from the attic.

God, he can be so simple at times, Jasper thought bitterly.

Half an hour later, Jasper's moping was disturbed again.

"You do realise that Emmett's being all grumpy now because of you. And of course, that means I have to deal with him. It's bloody annoying."

Jasper had to repress a sigh. He really was not up for a conversation with Rosalie.

Rosalie, however, had different ideas.

"Ew … how can you sit in all this dust?" she asked with a wrinkled nose.

"Easy, I'm not a vain, self-centred-"

"Yeah, yeah, got it," she cut him off before he could continue insulting her. "Now I was going to help you, but if that's your attitude…"

"How exactly did you plan to help me?" Jasper asked sarcastically.

"You know I killed my fiancé?"

The guard's necks snapped easily. This was it! The revenge Rosalie deserved.

_Just before opening the door, Rosalie made sure her dress was perfect. She wanted to look her best for her fiancé, right? The wedding dress was a stroke of genius, as far as Rosalie was concerned._

_Royce backed away in terror the moment he saw her. Rosalie savoured the moment; it was him who was afraid this time._

"_Why hello, darling," Rosalie said sarcastically._

"_Rose, I'm sorry. Please don't hurt me. I love you," he said desperately._

_Rosalie laughed harshly at him._

"_You love me? Did you love me when you attacked me and forced yourself on me? Did you love me when you left me to die?" she screamed at him hysterically._

_Royce made a non-committal sound, like he didn't know what the right answer should be._

"_Answer me!" she screamed._

"_Yes," he stammered._

"_Liar," Rosalie shouted at him, and then she slapped him with such force he went flying into the wall and crumpled onto the floor. Rosalie followed him._

"_You never loved me, admit it," she hissed in his ear as she crouched down beside it. She grabbed his wrist in her iron-grasp and squeezed. Satisfaction filled her when she felt the bone break and there was a fulfilling crack._

"_Admit it," she hissed again. Now with her hands around his neck, pining him to the floor._

"_I never loved you," he choked out. Much as Rosalie would have loved to torture him all night, she needed this over with before she spilt any blood. She did not want to take that risk; she despised the idea of any part of him ever entering her again._

_With one swift movement, Royce King was dead. Rosalie looked at his broken body. He deserved it. Everything was his fault. Everything that had happened to her went back to him. Not just the rape, but also her transformation and that snobby Edward's rejection. It all started with him. And now he was dead at her hand._

_She thought she would feel happy when he was finally gone, but instead she only felt numb. It didn't change anything. She was still stuck as a supernatural freak._

_Rosalie realised she had no idea what to do next. She had been so focused on her revenge she had never even considered what would come afterwards. She had all of eternity stretching ahead of her now. Literally, she added bitterly to herself._

_The only option she could think of was return to the Cullens, even though she despised them. Edward was a know-it-all snob. Carlisle had damned her to this life. Only Esme seemed remotely likeable. But she had no other choice available to her._

_She briefly wondered how Carlisle would react when he learnt what she'd done. But she didn't care. If he didn't want her to kill people, he shouldn't have changed her. _

"Thanks for sharing the trip down memory lane, Rosalie," Jasper said sarcastically. He had not enjoyed having to share her emotions while she told him about Royce's murder.

A part of him knew she must have a reason for this, considering how hard it was for her to talk about what had happened to her. But a bigger part of him just wanted her to leave him alone.

"You've never killed in cold blood," Rosalie stated. Jasper stared at her; he didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

"What?"

"You've killed when you didn't know there was an alternative, and you've slipped up. But you've never killed simply to kill. I've never drank human blood, but in many ways you're stronger than me." Jasper looked at her in surprise. Did Rosalie actually just admit to not being perfect? He would have thought she was lying, if her emotions hadn't been telling him she was being sincere.

"Don't look so surprised," she said huffily. "Are you coming down now?"

Much as Rosalie statement had surprised him, he still didn't fancy having to go downstairs and face his family, along with their persistent questions about how he was and 'was he OK?'

"Fine, be like that," Rosalie snapped. "Don't know why I even bothered," she mumbled, supposedly to herself but it was clear she had purposefully said it loud enough for him to hear.

Two hours later, he heard Alice and Esme return home. He suddenly felt ashamed of his behaviour while they were gone. He had told Alice he would be fine, and yet had spent the majority of the time hiding out in the attic.

He wanted to run downstairs and embrace his wife. But he still felt shame for everything that had happened. Despite what she had told him, he couldn't stop himself from thinking she deserved better. So instead of going downstairs and being with the woman he loved, he pushed himself further into the corner he was hiding in. Watching as dust clouds surrounded him, he wished they could cover him completely, so that he could never be found and he would never have to face those who loved him again.

Half an hour after he heard Alice and Esme arrive home, he heard the latch door into the attic open. He felt briefly happy thinking it was Alice, before a familiar scent washed over him. Unfortunately it was not the scent of wild flowers that belonged to his wife, but that of his youngest brother.

"Sorry to disappoint you." Edward said, flopping down on a broken chair. "Alice says that you're to stop acting like an idiot and go downstairs to her. Esme sent me to check up on you."

This statement was followed by silence.

That it? Jasper thought at his brother.

"You know this used to be Esme's favourite chair," Edward said thoughtfully. Jasper looked at the broken chair confused. "Until I threw it at Carlisle's head," Edward continued. Jasper couldn't help but give a snort of laughter at that image.

"And why were you throwing chairs at Carlisle's head?" Jasper asked, thankful for a topic that wasn't killing people.

Edward tried to rid his head of the images. Esme sobbing. Carlisle's disapproving face. So infuriating he had lost his temper and thrown a chair at him, wanting to break that irritatingly patient face with the compassionate eyes. He wouldn't think of them. They were on one path and he was going down another now.

This is the right thing to do, he kept telling himself. Carlisle is a fool with his way of life. This is how it's supposed to be.

_He was running towards the town, where he had first heard the thoughts of the man he had wanted so desperately to kill. And now that he was no longer tied down by Carlisle's ideology, he could._

_It didn't take him long to find the fiend, his thoughts filled with what he was going to do once he got home and went into his daughter's bedroom._

_That little girl will be safe soon, Edward told himself._

_As the man walked down the abandoned alley, Edward struck. The sweet taste of the elixir he had denied himself for nine years trickled down his burning throat._

_My first victim, Edward thought to himself grimly. His thoughts turned to the man's daughter. And the first person I've saved, he added._

"And I thought I'd avoided the 'my kill' story," Jasper said sarcastically. Edward ignored his sarcasm.

"Rosalie was, surprisingly enough, right earlier. I killed when I knew there was an alternative. Ever since you find out about our lifestyle you've never turned your back on it."

Jasper opened his mouth to argue.

"Purposefully," Edward added. "That's better than Rosalie or me. One slip-up in your first seven years of vegetarianism? That's better than Emmett or Esme managed. Maybe you should stop beating yourself up." He didn't say anything for a while, just sat there concentrating on the chair, allowing Jasper time to process what he'd said.

"I don't understand why Esme insists on dragging this thing with us from house to house. She considers it some sort of twisted reminder that she has to fight to keep us together." Edward broke the silence, before getting gracefully out of the broken chair and leaving the attic.

It was Esme who was next up to see Jasper.

"I should really dust up here," she announced, as she swiped the top of one of the boxes, sending a cloud of dust into the air. She opened the box and began rummaging around inside.

"Alice is really worried about you," she told him, her upper-half still inside the box. "She can't see when you're going to come down and it worries hers. But she's determined you're to come down on your own accord." Jasper watched as his mother resurfaced from inside the giant box. He noticed it had the year '1921' written on it.

"You think you don't deserve Alice?" his mother asked gently. She began smoothing out the object that she had got out of the box. Jasper dimly noticed it was a wedding veil, presumably Esme's, since the box had the year of her wedding on the side.

"I thought so after I had killed, yeah," Jasper replied sadly.

"I know the feeling." Esme smiled sadly, continuing to smooth out the veil on her lap. Jasper looked at her with interest. He knew Esme had slipped up before, and with Carlisle as a mate, the only vampire who Jasper knew who had never killed, it wasn't too difficult to imagine she had felt the same way he did about Alice. That she didn't deserve him.

"Did I ever tell you how Carlisle and I got engaged?" Esme asked.

Esme looked in horror at the corpse in front of her. What had she done? She backed away from the corpse with a whimper.

"Esme? Esme?" she could hear Carlisle's panicked shouts behind her. She couldn't tell him. How could she look into the face she loved so much and say she had gone against everything he believed in.

So she ran. With her newborn speed she was still noticeably faster than Carlisle. It was how she had gotten away from him the first time around, when she had smelled the hiker.

She ran until she was out of forest and was stood at a cliff-edge. It was not the same cliff she had jumped from three months ago, but the circumstances were still eerily similar. Running through the forest aimlessly, ending up unexpectedly at a cliff-edge. Except this time she couldn't jump to end the pain that coursed through her.

She heard the sound of vampire footsteps running. She didn't bother to run this time; she had nowhere to run to. She had to face what had happened, what she had done.

Would Carlisle no longer love her?

"Esme," Carlisle whispered as he walked toward her.

"I'm sorry," she squeaked. She began sobbing and automatically went to brush the tears away, even though she could never produce tears again.

Without a word, Carlisle enfolded her in his arms, stroking her shoulders in a comforting manner as she sobbed.

"Why are you still here?" she asked him finally. It made no sense. How could he still hold her like he loved her when she had betrayed everything he stood for?

Carlisle's face screwed up with confusion.

"What do you mean?" he asked softly.

"I mean, why are you still here after what I did?"

"Because I love you, Esme Platt. I love you more than I can say."

"You deserve someone better. Someone who doesn't kill people."

"It was a mistake, love. And you're wrong. I don't deserve someone better than you. For me, there is no one better than you."

"I find that difficult to believe."

"I love you and I always will. For all of eternity. And I hope that one day, you'll be my wife." He paused then, while Esme tried to process that what he was saying was really true. "Marry me, Esme. Make me the happiest I've ever been or could ever wish to be" Esme looked at him in shock. Did he seriously just say that? It wasn't possible. After all she'd done, she couldn't believe he still loved her, never mind wanted to marry her.

"What?" she managed to squeak out.

"Marry me," he whispered again.

"Yes," she sobbed back, still struggling to believe he loved her. "I love you too," she whispered and then she kissed him. This kiss was different to all the rest, more emotional, as she tried to work out if this was all really true.

"That's good to know," he replied with a chuckle, once she had let go of possession of his lips.

"Alice loves you no matter what, Jasper, remember that," Esme told him. Then she placed her wedding veil back in its box and disappeared downstairs.

Jasper was beginning to feel guilty for his extended stay in the attic. Alice and his family deserved better. He began to move toward the latch door, when he heard movement downstairs.

"Alice says you're ready to come down now, but I'd like to speak to you first," his father called up to him.

The latch opened and Carlisle climbed into the attic alongside him.

Jasper wondered what Carlisle had to say to him. It wasn't like he could have a 'my kill' story like the rest of them.

"Don't tell me you have a 'when I killed someone' story too, because if you do I think you should share it with the entire family, as they seem to be under the impression you've never killed a human," Jasper joked.

"No, I've never killed before. But events like what happened last week are just an unfortunate part of what we are. You can't hold yourself responsible."

"In all fairness, Carlisle, I don't think you understand."

"Jasper, I'm as imperfect as anyone here …"

"_You don't want to do this, Edward." Edward turned around at the sound of his father's voice. He was stood in the middle of Charles Evenson's living room._

"Oh, I don't, do I?" Edward hissed at his father. "He deserves it. How can you live with yourself, knowing he's still alive and you do nothing about it?"

"We are not murderers, Edward."

"Not murderers? We're vampires, Carlisle, designed to kill. And that man up there deserves to die. You don't have to see it in her mind. They way he beat her and raped her. How can you stand there and tell me to let that monster live? You're supposed to love her!"

"I do love her, Edward, and you know it. Esme doesn't want this." It was only that knowledge that kept him here. For as much as he might despise himself for it, there was a part of him that wanted to kill Charles Evenson just as much as Edward did.

"Carlisle's right, I don't want this." Both vampires turned round at the sound of the new voice.

"Esme, I thought you were going to stay at the hotel," Carlisle said. She had been very clear in her desire to not have to come back to this house ever again.

"I couldn't stay there, not knowing what was happening."

"We should leave," Carlisle announced, wrapping his arm tenderly around his wife and steering her towards the front door.

"He deserves to die," Edward growled.

"He is a monster, no doubt, but I won't have you become one also over someone like him," Esme told him sternly. Still Edward didn't move. "Please, let's go," she pleaded.

Just then the sound of bedsprings creaking came from upstairs, followed by the sound of feet landing on the floor.

"Edward, we have to go," Carlisle said desperately. If Charles came downstairs he would surely recognise Esme. And Carlisle wasn't certain he could be in the same room with the man who had brutalised his wife without killing him himself.

Edward's eyes flickered between his parents and the stairs.

"Please, Edward," Esme pleaded.

"Whose there?" a male voice shouted.

Edward took off up the stairs, followed by Carlisle.

"She doesn't want this, Edward. If she did, I'd do it myself." Edward turned to look in shock at his father. But his thoughts revealed he was telling the truth.

"Who are you?" Both vampires turned in shock to look at Charles Evenson. Hatred unlike anything he had ever felt boiled up in Carlisle. This was the man who had hurt Esme. He remembered when he had found Esme in the morgue. Bruised and broken, she was no longer the carefree girl who's leg he had once fixed. Charles had done that to her. His sweet, loving, wife, who completed him in so many ways, this man had treated like she was worth nothing. Never in over two centuries had the need to kill filled Carlisle so strongly.

"What are you doing in my house?" Charles stood closer to the two of them, trying to act threatening.

"Answer me," he ordered, before going to grab Edward. In one fluid movement Edward moved out of his way, and Charles was left to stumble into the now empty space where he had stood.

Carlisle knew he should do something to stop this. That he should make sure he got Edward and Esme, especially Esme, out of there right now. But he was too busy trying to control his instincts. Not since his newborn days had he been so desperate to kill. But it wasn't his throat that called for him to kill. He did not want the man's blood. He just wanted him dead.

"What are you?" Charles stammered, staring in horror at the two men before him.

"We're here to make you pay for what you did," Edward said menacingly, walking toward him.

Charles backed away, until he stumbled down the top of the stairs, righting himself about four steps down. Edward and Carlisle followed.

Esme's down there, son, don't let him near her, Carlisle thought at his son. He no longer knew whether he wanted this man to live or die. But he knew for certain he did not want his wife to have to come face to face with her human torturer.

But the decision was taken out of his hands, as Charles tripped and fell down the rest of the stairs, landing in the living room.

Esme gasped and Charles turned around at the sound.

"You!" Charles hissed. "You dare to come back you little whore. They told me you were dead, and good riddance to you. And now you're back." Charles raised his fist to hit her, as he had done throughout their marriage.

Behind him Carlisle saw nothing but red. As he saw the monster he loathed raise his fist to hit the woman he loved, his entire vision went red and he acted on instinct. Before Charles got a chance to touch Esme, Carlisle had him pined against the wall, his mouth at the fiend's neck. Every long buried vampire instinct was now telling him to kill.

"Carlisle, no!" he heard his wife shout behind him. Her shout reminded him of who he was and what he believed in.

He was not a killer, but that thought alone would not have been enough to stop him at this point.

Esme doesn't what this. It was that thought that stopped him. He had promised to be a better husband to her than the man he currently held in his grasp. He would not sink to his level, she deserved better than that.

"You live because of her," he hissed in Charles' ear, and then he let him go.

"What are you freaks?" Charles shouted. Nobody answered but Esme took a step forward.

"Listen to me, Charles. You will never hurt me again. You have no power over me now. You are a despicable man, and you live simply because I will not waste another minute of my life worrying over you," Esme hissed at him.

Behind her, Edward snorted. "You can try, but you may have noticed we're not exactly normal." He was clearly responding to something in Charles' thoughts.

"Edward," Carlisle said warningly.

"That plan I like," Edward said calmly. Charles scurried off upstairs.

"Come on, we need to leave," Edward announced flatly. Carlisle took hold of Esme's hand and together all three of them left the house.

"What's he planning, Edward?" Esme asked.

"He was planning to shot us, but now he has a different use for the gun." Just as he spoke the sound of a gunshot came from within the house they had just left.

"Problem solved," Edward said grimly and then ran ahead. Esme looked shocked and Carlisle turned to face her, waiting for her reaction.

"He's dead," she said unbelievingly.

Carlisle didn't know how to feel; usually he detested any waste of human life. But with Charles Evenson, he could make an exception. The man who had ruined his wife's human life was dead. And though he knew it was wrong, that thought give him a grim sort of contentment.

Jasper was staring at Carlisle in surprise.

"You nearly killed someone?" he asked amazed.

"If Esme hadn't shouted me, or if she'd shouted just a second later …" Carlisle let his words trail off, as they both imagined the consequences. Carlisle would have slipped-up just like any member of his family had.

It made Jasper feel less like the black sheep, as he thought of all the different stories his family had told him today. He wasn't the only one who struggled with bloodlust. He did belong here, with these people he had grown to love.

"Excuse me," he said to Carlisle, as he walked past him toward the latch door, "I have to go see Alice."

He dropped through the latch hole and into the hallway.

"Finally," his favourite voice in the world said from behind him, "I was worried you were going to hide up there all day. How are you?"

"Better actually," he answered truthfully. "Life goes on, as Emmett would say." Alice giggled. Jasper felt the love that was radiating of her. She still loved him and that was all that mattered in the end of it all.


End file.
